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MONOGRAM 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 



MONOGRAM 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 



Rev. ELIAS NASON, M. A. 



condiscb modos, amanda 

Voce quos beddas : minuentur atkab 
Carmine cueae. Horace, Car., lib. iv, car. xi. 



' I KNEW A VERY WISE MAN THAT BELIEVED THAT IF A MAN WERE 
PERMITTED TO MAKE ALL THE BALLADS, HE NEED NOT CARE WHO 

SHOULD MAKE THE LAWS OF A NATION." Anclrew Fletcfier. 




ALBANY: 

JOEL MUNSELL. 

1869. 






A MONOGRAM 



OUR NATIONAL SONG, 



I. Of the Ministry and Power of Music. 

" Be sure there's something coldly wrong 
About the heart that does not glow 
To hear its own, its native song." 

Music is a mysterious agent chiming grandly 
into this world's magnificent drama and im- 
parting something of life and splendor to its ever 
shifting scenes. The universe itself, which for 
its harmony^ the Greeks denominated xoa^oc, — 
beauty, is but a royal harp — bird-strings, wind- 
strings, star-strings, swept by the invisible fin- 
gers of the illustrious Composer himself, and 
throwing up sparkles of spray from the vast 
tone-ocean, rolling far beyond, to cheer the 



1 Plato asserts that the soul of the world is conjoined with 
musical proportion ; Sir Isaac Newton held that the princi- 
ples of harmony pervade the universe, adducing as a proof 

2 



6 A MONOQBAM OF 

heart of man and give him some bright earnest 
of felicities to come. The grand Master of 
music is ever sending forth his bold authems 
from the echoing mountains over which the 
pealing thunder breaks ; from the woodlands 
rocked by tempests; from the ever-heaving 
sea; — he softens these wild symphonies by the 
gentle song of the nightingale, the whispering 
of the reeds and the dying cadences of the 
evening breeze ; — he also gives man power to 
mingle in the general concert, with his own 
sweet strains of vocal or of instrumental music, 
and thus by the ministry of art enhance the 
common song. 

From the inexhaustible fountain of music he 
permits us to draw special strains for special 
ends ; and these sometimes steal into the inte- 
rior kingdom of the soul with power almost 
irresistible, unlock the cells of memory and 



of this the analogy subsisting between color and sound. 
So Shakespeare says : \_Mer chant of Venice, Act Y, Scene 1.] 

" There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest, 
But in his motion like an angel sings, 
Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubims ; 
Such harmony is in immortal souls; 
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.''' 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 7 

perform angelic marvels for the way-worn and 
the weary. 

Now a touch of some cunning harper summons 
wandering reason to its throne ; now an Italian 
Tarantella, quick and joyous, allays the poison 
of a viper's sting; now a captive's plaintive 
melody melts a tyrant into tears and moves 
him to unbind the chains of slavery ; now some 
Ranz des Vaches^ from Alpine horn makes 
the poor Swiss soldier pant and die for home ; 
now a battle march or pibroch from a Highland 
bagpipe turns the tide of war, and now a Mar- 
seillaise, uprising as the swell of ocean, from a 
hundred thousand sons of liberty shakes a 
throne and shapes the destiny of an empire. 

We underrate, I apprehend, the power of 
patriotic song. That Marseillaise was called by 
Lamartine, the firewater of the, old French 
revolution. It has several times been banished 



1 Airs played on a long trumpet called the alp-horn by the 
mountaineers of Switzerland. J. J. Rousseau relates that 
these strains were so dear to the Swiss in the French armies 
that the bands were forbidden to play them under penalty 
of death, since they caused the Helvetians to desert or die 
of what they called la tnaladie dupays. — 3Ioore's Cyc. Music^ 
in loco. 



8 A MONOGRAM OF 

from the kingdom as an institution quite too 
strong for kings manage ; and in the late up- 
heaving of the masses in our own beloved land, 
I sometimes thought the grand old patriotic 
peal of Hail Columbia, the heart thrilling war 
song of the Star Spangled Banner, exercised a 
mightier sway than any other single cause 
whatever. The name of our illustrious leader 
acted as a charmed spell ; the favoring smiles 
of beauty sent electric energy through the sol- 
dier's heart; the stars and stripes still fanned 
the sacred flame ; but the rousing notes of our 
national patriotic music — whether rising from 
the mighty congregation — organs and voices 
joining, or from the black war-ship on the 
moon-lit ocean, or from the screaming fife and 
pealing drum upon the tented field, struck 
deeper chords and moved to nobler daring. 
Hence the leaders of the late rebellion were 
compelled to ostracize our national songs in 
order to keep their cause in countenance with 
the people. Yanhee Doodle must be silenced 
ere the brave old flag could be cut down. So 
long as its rich, rolicksome notes came rolling 
out, the stars and stripes must float. 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 



II. The Secret of the Power of Patriotic 

Song. 

1. Were we to ask the secret of this tran- 
scendent power of patriotic song, I think it 
would be found consisting mainly in the prin- 
ciple of association of ideas — of ideas so com- 
pletely correlated that the latter of necessity 
brings up a long and brilliant train which, in 
the hallowed glow of feeling music only can 
impart, come trooping in upon the mind with a 
redoubled strength and splendor. 

A patriotic song is an enchanted key to me- 
mory's deepest cells ; it touches secret springs, 
it kindles sacred flames in chambers of the soul 
unvisited by other agencies. It wakes to life 
ten thousand slumbering chords and makes 
them thrill and pulsate — just as if some loving 
angel's finger touched them — to the grand God- 
given sentiment of liberty. 

A patriotic song, like the enchanter's magic 
wand, calls up the honored forms from 

" Fame's eternal camping ground ; " 



10 A MONOGRAM OF 

it makes the immortal patriots live and breathe 
again ; reveals the long lines of gleaming bayo- 
nets on the battle-field; renews the headlong 
charge of the impetuous cavalry ; repeats again 
the wild huzza of the invincible phalanx of the 
infantry; makes us hear once more the exult- 
ing scream of victory, and points our moistened 
eye to the torn and bloodied flag still fluttering 
in the breeze, and to the nation, rocked by the 
scathing tempest, righting itself once more be- 
neath the rainbow of enchanting peace flung 
sweetly over it. 

We hear a patriotic song in boyhood from 
the lips of an honored sire who has filled our 
greedy ear with the wild adventures of his old 
campaigns ; we listen to the rousing strain on 
some cold winter evening by the ample hearth- 
stone — the rude queen's arm with battered 
stock, still hanging in its leathern loop above 
the mantle piece — we hear the grand old sto- 
ries and each note of music then becomes a 
chain of gold linked with the deeds of heroes — 
Adams, Warren, Schuyler, Washington. 
■ We hear the song again in riper years — it 
opens the flood-gates of patriotic feeling, and 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 11 

gilds it with the sunniest dreams of our young, 
bounding life. 

The nation in its glory, with its imposing 
cavalcade of illustrissimi, marches along before 
the eye of finest fancy, and rises heaven-crowned 
to its magnificent destiny ! 

2. Again, a patriotic song, as the old Mar- 
seillaise, is the embodiment of a nation's grand- 
est thought. It ever springs, Minerva-like, out 
of some dreadful exigence. It is a child of 
agony — but still a child of liberty — a rain- 
bow on the darkest fold of the terrific storm ! 

When Rouget de I'lsle ^ in winter poverty 
struck from the broken strings of his crushed 
heart the electrifying dithyrambics of the Mar- 
seillaise, that heart was France. What his 
whole bleeding country felt, that single soldier 
felt ; and with more of truth than of the pom- 
pous Louis Quatorze, it could be said of that 
young brave — The kingdom it was he! 



1 Joseph Rouget de I'lsle, born 1760, received a pension 
of 1500 francs per annum for the composition of the words 
of the Marseillaise. The song was first sung by. the Mar- 
seilles confederates, or Grirondists, in 1792. It was sup- 
pressed by the Bourbons, but came up again in 1830, and 
has since been one of the national hymns of France. 



12 A MONOGRAM OF 

Money, some years ago, was offered for a 
national hymn. Futility ! money may buy 
machinery — sometimes in the form of men — 
but inspiration, never ! ^ 

The very sentiment of a national song is the 
grand idea of the liberty-loving people- — the 
words are from the burning heart of the nation 
itself — God speaking through it — they are 
the synthetic expression of the politics of the 
nation — they are the golden censer that en- 
shrines the hopes of the nation. They hence 
become the living tongue of the nation, the 
leader of the nation, the guardian angel of the 
nation. 

From the very spirit then in which they are 
conceived; from the very truths which they 
enunciate, as well as from the associations which 
they awaken, they become eloquent preachers 
in every crusade against oppression — engines 
mightier than the rifled cannon — because be- 
hind the rifle cannon for defending liberty. 

As they spring, electric flashes, from the 
heart of a nation, so are they in turn winged 



1 In tlie spring of 1861, a committee of gentlemen of New 
York offered the sum of $500 for the best national hymn 



ojjB National song. 13 

with such power to reenkindle the heart of a 
nation, and while true music, always of itself 
awakens thoughts of the invisible, the spiritual 
and the grand, so being allied to words that 
breathe as heard in our great national anthems — 
it in union aids to swell the tide of patriotic 
emotion till it surges over the barriers to human 
progress and leaves the constellated stars of free- 
dom shining in unclouded radiance over us. 



III. But Little Music in the Old Colonial 

Times. 

1. I have intimated that a great national 
song is the offspring of a great national emotion ; 
hence we could hardly look for any remarkable 
patriotic hymn in this country anterior to the 
revolution. 

Our forefathers were too busy to be musical ; 
too sedate to listen to secular songs ; too dis- 



adapted to the then existing condition of the country. Some- 
thing like twelve hundred competitors presented lyrical 
pieces, but not one of them was deemed of sufficient merit 
to claim the prize. 

3 



14 A MONOGBAM OF 

tinct in race and government to be inspired by 
the same living, fostering, patriotic thought. 
God was their commander ; the songs they sang 
were in the main addressed to him; and, if 
sometimes a secular ditty was heard to break 
the dull monotony of the spinning wheel of a 
winter's evening, it was in some mournful minor 
key, as 

" My name was Kobert Kidd ^ 
And so wickedly I did ; 
Grod's laws I did forbid 
As I sailed, as I sailed." 

or 

Lord Bateman, he was a noble lord, 
A lord of high degree. 

or of the Gruel Barbara Allen} 

Such wild songs as the Maypole of Merrie 

Mount; Begone dull Care; Betty Martin (from 

0! miJii heati Martini) ; 

Old Adam was caused to slumber, 
A rib taken out of his side ; 

being heard only in those Bacchanalian revels 



] Executed May 9th, 1701. See Cooper's History of the 
Navy^ vol. I, p. 25. 

^ This is an ancient Scottish ballad inserted in Allan 
Ramsay's Tea Tahle lliscellany. Sir W. Scott's Remarks 
on Popular Poetry. 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 15 

which the bar-room of colonial times would 
sometimes witness. 

Even the revolution itself did not produce 
any very creditable patriotic song. The famous 
semi-sacred psalms of Gliester and Columbia, by 
that famous Boston tanner and musician, Wil- 
liam Billings/ over whose sign-board some one 
hung a couple of contending cats to indicate 
the music which he made, were the favorite 
camp songs of that day. 

2. Gen. James Wolfe s Song. 

The earliest American soldier-song which 
became broadly popular is said to have ema- 
nated from the fertile fancy of Gen. James 
Wolfe, in 1759. 

As the boat of this gallant soldier was glid- 
ing over the silent tide of the St. Lawrence on 



1 Born October 7, 1746, and died in Boston, September 
26, 1800. He published six different works on psalmody, 
embracing many pieces of his own composition. The spirit 
of the revolution appears in many of his verses, and some of 
his psalm tunes were frequently played on the fife and drum 
in the revolutionary army. The words to Chester which 
were written by himself, are : 

Let tyrants shake their iron rod, 

And slavery clank her galling chains ; 

We'll fear them not — we trust in Grod ; 
New Ena;land's Grod forever reis'ns. 



16 A MONOOBAM OF 

the eve of that battle which gave him death and 
glory, he repeated in a low wailing tone, that 
celebrated, and to him prophetic strain of Gray : 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour ; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

and then under the inspiration of the hour and 
yet as if in contrast to the thought — a sparkle 
of light upon the darkling wave — he sang : 

How stands the glass around ! ^ 
For shame ye take no care, my boys ; 

How stands the glass around ! 

Let mirth and wine abound 

The trumpet sounds. 
The colors, they are flying, boys. 

which was sung in the messes of officers and 
squads of soldiers in both armies through the 
revolution, and which is still a popular military 
song. 

The death of Wolfe created an intense sensa- 
tion both in England and America, and a few 



1 The idea is from Why Soldibvs, why^ in the Patron, 
1729. How stands the glass a7'ound, first appeared in Wil- 
liam Shield's Siege of Gibo^altar, 1775. It is questionable 
whether Wolfe composed the song. See Chappell's Popu- 
lar Music of the Olden. Times, vol. li, p. 689. 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 17 

years afterwards the notorious Thomas Paine, 
author of the Age of Reason, wrote his cele- 
brated ode in memory of the lamented hero. 
It is a beautiful specimen of English anapestic 
verse ; graceful in rhythm and melody, yet a 
little over strained in sentiment. The music 
is the fine old plaintive English air called The 
Gods of tJie Greeks, and is well adapted to the 
words. 

This song continued popular. long after the 
revolution, and nothing brings my dear old 
father's features more distinctly to my mind 
than the words of the closing stanza, which his 
noble tenor voice would render so effectively as 
to leave our young eyes brimming full of patri- 
otic tears ! ^ "To the plains of Quebec " — it is 
the death angel who speaks : 

" To the plains of Quebec with the orders I flew ; 

He begged for a moment's delay; 
He cried ' forbear ! let me victory hear 

And then thy commands I'll obey ! ' 
Witii a darksome thick film I encompassed his eye 

And bore him away in an urn, 
Lest the fondness he bore for his own native shore, 

Should induce him again to return." 



1 " The melody of youthful days 
Which steals the trembling tear of speechless praise." 



18 A MONOGRAM OF 

Mr. Paine afterwards wrote in the same 
graceful measure and to the same beautiful tune, 
his well known Liberty Tree : 

" In the chariot of light from the regions of day 

The goddess of Liberty came ; 
Ten thousand celestials directed her way, 

And hither conducted the dame. 
A fair budding branch from the gardens above, 

Where millions with millions agree, 
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love. 

And the plant she named Liberty &ee." 

which had influence in fanning the flame of 
patriotism in the days of yore. 



IV. Music of the Revolution, Yankee 
Doodle. 

It were quite easy to trace the progress and 
to write the history of the American revolution 
itself, from this period to its eventful close, by 
the patriotic songs which were written in com- 
memoration of the scenes as they transpired ; 
and these songs, though homely in style and 
sentiment, sung in the camps of the soldiers. 



OUR NATIONAL BONG. 19 

were undoubtedly as effective in inspiring and 
keeping alive the spirit of patriotism as the 
voices of Adams, Otis, and of Henry, in the 
forum. I can, however, refer only to one of 
the most prominent of these songs. Its music 
touched the heart of every patriot soldier then ; 
and rings with a fresh power through every 
patriotic bosom still. It bears the quaint but 
spirit-stirring name of Yankee Doodle I 

This is indeed a free and easy, queer and 
comical, good-for-nothing, rolicksome sort of a 
tune ; with a dash of a saucy, mind-your-own- 
business in it ; a drole, as a Frenchman, and a 
rigmarole, as an Englishman, would be like to 
call it ; and yet it is fairly naturalized; and this 
by one of the most intelligent nations in the 
world J which unmistakeably implies, what I 
most honestly believe, that the tune has real 
" snap and ring and ginger " in it ; and though 
of humble origin, is worthy of a brief biography. 
The term Yankee is evidently a corruption of 
the word English or of the French, Anglais,^ as 



1 " Le mot Yankee," says M Philarete Chasles, Revue des 
Deux Mondes, May 15, 1850," n'est autre que le mot Eng- 
lish transforme par la prononciation defectueuse des indige- 



20 ^ MONOGRAM OF 

imperfectly and gutturally spoken by the In- 
dians and the real meaning of Yankee Doodle 
would therefore be English simpleton. 

The tune, it is very well known, is a daughter 
of the regiment — -coming to us by adoption. 
Its parentage is involved in great obscurity ; 
many cities, as in case of Homer, claiming it. 
Some consider it an old vintage song of France ; 
the Spaniards think their vales have echoed to 
its notes in early days ; ^ the Magyars, with 
Louis Kossuth, recognize in it one of. their old 
national dances. England entertains some sha- 



nes du Massacliusetts ; Yenghis, Yanghis, Yanhies. Les 
Anglais quand ils se moquent des Yanhies, se moquent 
d'eux-memes." 

And so the Rev. James C. Eiclimond rightly sings : 

" At Yankies, John, beware to laugh ; 
Against yourself you joke ; 
For Yenghees, English, is but half 
By Indian natives spoke." 

1 The following note is from a secretary of legation at 

^^^"■'^^ Madrid, June 3, 1858. 

My Dear Sir : The tune Yankee Doodle, from the first 
of my showing it here, has been acknowledged by persons 
acquainted with music to bear a strong resemblance to the 
popular airs of Biscay ; and yesterday, a professor from the 
north recognized it as being much like the ancient sword 
dance played on solemn occasions by the people of San Se- 
bastian. He says the tune varies in those provinces, and 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 21 

dowy traditions of its birth before the times of 
Cromwell; and the Dutchman claims it as a 
low country song of tithes and bonnyclabber ; 
giving, it is said, as the original words : 

" Yanker didel, doodel, down ; 
Didel, dudel, lauter, 
Yanke viver, voover vown 

Botermilk and tather." [tithes] 

But whatever may have been its origin, this 
child of the regiment, so far as I can learn, first 
appeared in America on the banks of the Hud- 



proposes in a couple of months to give me the changes as 
they are to be found in their diflferent towns, that the 
matter may be judged of and fairly understood. Our na- 
tional air certainly has its origin in the music of the free 
Pyrenees; the first strains are identically those of the 
heroic Danza Esparta, as it was played to me, of brave 
old Biscay. 

Very truly yours, 

Buckingham Smith. 

The origin of the word YanJcee has greatly perplexed the 
etymologists ; yet that given in the text is by far the most 
probable. Anbury, in his Travels through the Interior of 
North America, vol. ii, p. 46, says it is derived from a Che- 
rokee word, eankke, which means coward and slave. See 
Drake's Booh of the Indians, book l, p. 23. Others deduce 
it from the old Scotch word Yanlde, a sharp, clever woman. 
A writer in the Boston Weekly Magazine, for January 29, 
1803, says it is from Yankau, an Indian word for con- 
4 



22 -4 MONOGRAM OF 

son, in June, 1755 ; ^ and was introduced into 
the American camp by one mischievous Dr. 
Richard Shuckburgh ^ of the British army in 
this amusing way. Our colonial companies 
under Gov. William Shirley, then encamped 
on the left of the British army, meanly 
disciplined and still more meanly clad; some 
in long tailed blue coats, some in long-tailed 
black coats, some in no coats at all, heads 
shorn — heads unshorn, and marching after 
music quite two centuries old, incurred, of 
course, the ridicule of their fashionable trans- 
atlantic allies. 



queror ; but most writers now agree with Mr. Heckewelder, 
that it is a corruption of the word Anglais, or Englisli, made 
by the Indians in pronouncing it. 

Yengees, says Mrs. Child, in Hohomok, p. 39, is " The 
Indian term for English from which Yankee is probably 
derived." 

Dr. Trumbull says, in a note to one of his poems, 
" The Indians, in attempting to utter the word English, 
with their broad, guttural accent, gave it a sound which 
would be nearly represented in this way; Younghees — 
[Yankees]." 

1 For the history of this national air, see N. H. Carter's 
article in Moore's Historical Miscellany, vol. ill, p. 217. 

'^ Richard Shuckburg was appointed secretary of Indian 
affairs by Sir William Johnson, in 1760. Documentary 
History of Neio York, il, 460. 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 23 

To keep the sport along, this naughty Dr. 
Shuckburgh, wit, fiddler, surgeon as he was, 
tells the Americans that their music is too 
comical, and that he will get up a tune for 
them in modern style, and so he gives Yankee 
Boodle I " Mighty fine ! " the raw recruits cry 
out. It strikes at once the strong chord in the 
American heart, and is heard immediately, and 
nothing else is heard throughout the camp — 
the colonies. 

It became our battle march -^ in the revolution, 
and although the British gave it us, June, 1755, 
we gave it back to them, June, 1775, with 
compound interest. We then baptized the 
bantling in the blood of heroes ; placed upon it 
the fair name of Freedom, rocked it in old Fa- 
neuil Hall, and took it home to live with us 
forever. 

By a strong poetic license, Geo. P. Morris 
makes the adoption of Yankee Doodle date back 
only to the destruction of tea in Boston harbor; 



1 " While every rebel fife iu play 
To Yankee Doodle tuned its lay, 
And like the music of the .spheres, 
Mellifluous soothed their vanquished ears." 
M'Fingal, Canto vi. 



24 A MONOGRAM OF 

yet well he writes in the bright spirit of the 
tune, and to the tune itself. 

" A long war then they had, in which 
John was at last defeated ; 
And Yanhee Doodle was the march, 
To which their troops retreated. 

' Cute Jonathan, to see them fly. 

Could not restrain his laughter ; 
' That tune,' said he, ' suits to a T, 

I'll sing it ever after,' " 

And so he still keeps singing it — and so the 
foe still flies before it. 

The brigade under Lord Percy played Yan- 
Tcee Doodle in contempt of the Americans as 
they moved on Lexington^ — they played an- 
other tune returning — but still they sang it 
through the streets of Boston to such words as : 

"Yankee Boodle came to town, 
For to buy a firelock ; 
We will tar and feather him, 

And so we will John Hancock." 

Although the British gave us Yankee Doodle 
as a joke, I think we fully paid them back in 



1 In his very able acc^ount of the battle of Lexington, the 
Hon. Charles Hudson says : " Percy marched out through 
Roxbury, to the tune of Yankee Doodle." See History of 
Lexington, p. 197-8. 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 25 

their own coin for it, in the merry songs which 
it inspired at their expense before the revolu- 
tion ended. 

The most remarkable of these was written 
by Francis Hopkinson, Esquire,^ author of Gene- 
ral Wasliingtmis March, and most appropri- 
ately called the Battle of the Kegs. 

In 1777, a genuine Yankee, by the name of 
David Bushnell, born in Saybrook, undertook 
to blow up the British fleet, then lying at Phila- 
delphia, by a sort of a gim-crack which he called 
his submarine torpedo; 'which nonsensical in- 
strument, looked like a mud tortoise with a 
man astride his back ; and was just about as 
slow in movement. 

Failing in this, he then prepares a quantity 
of wooden kegs, or porpoises ; fills them with 
some kind of explosive powder ; arranges them 
with a spring lock so as to go ofi" when coming 



1 Son of Judge Thomas Hopkinson, wlio assisted Dr. 
Franklin in his electrical discoveries. He was born at 
Philadelphia, in 1737, and died on the 8th of May, 1791. 
" His head is not bigger than a large apple," writes John 
Adams to his wife in 1776, " yet he is genteel, well-bred 
and very social." He married the accomplished Miss Ann 
Borden, of Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1767. 



26 ^ MONOOBAM OF 

in contact with a solid body ; and sends them 
floating down the Delaware river among the 
vessels of the British fleet. One of these black- 
heads bumping against some object in the river, 
happens to explode, and the British soldiers 
seeing the stream alive with them, and sup- 
posing each to contain a living Yankee, are 
most wofully alarmed and open a general fire, 
which is of course returned by a general 
fizzle, from Bushnell's battery. This engage- 
ment, fitly named Tlw Battle of the Kegs, 
afibrded the facile pen of Hopkinson, a theme 
for the wittiest ballad of the revolution. Hear 
for example, the cry of the aflrighted British 
sailors : 

" These kegs, I'm told, the rebels hold, 
Packed up like pickled herring ; 
And they're come down to attack the town, 
In this new way of ferrying ! " 

and when was British valor ever better eulo- 
gized than in the closing stanzas : 

"From morn to night these men of might 
Displayed amazing courage ; 
And when the sun was fairly down, 
Retired to sup their porridge. 



OUR NATIONAL BONG. 27 

A hundred meu with each a pen 

Or more, upon my word, sir, 
It is most true, would be too few 

Their valor to record, sir. 

Such feats did they perform that day. 

Against these wicked kegs, sir ; 
That years to come, if they get home, 

They'll make their boast and brags, sir." 

Qod Save King George, began the revolution, 
Yorktown and Yanhee Doodle — for it was 
played at the surrender of Cornwallis^ — ended 
it ; and so on its great march rejoicing, this 
queer, old, plucky, continental, saltpetre, and 
brimstone tune, has been outsoldiering its ene- 
mies, and continues to outsoldier them till our 
dear old striped bunting now streams from 
every flag-staff in the land again ! 

Men laugh at Yankee Doodle, yet they love 
it ; they find all. manner of fault with it, as 
with the romping, reckless, hoyden girl of the 
family ; and yet they make the most of it. The 
world indeed has no tune like it. 

Over the River to Charlie ; ^a ii^a, a la Lan- 
terne, les Aristocrats; St. Patrick's Day in the 



'^ See John F. Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, vol. 
p. 333. 



II, 



28 A MONOGRAM OF 

Morning, are as much inferior to it as Charles 
the Pretender, or Maximilian Robespierre, or the 
tutelary saint of Ireland were to Washington. 
"Independence now, and independence forever," 
rings in every note of it; and we never feel half 
so much like the very '76 itself, as when we 
hear it rolling. "For a change," once said a hon 
vivant, "let me have water, but for a steady 
drink, Old Cogniac ! " For a change, I also say, 
let me have brass and Yerdi; but for steady 
martial music, fife and drum and Yankee Doodle. 
It is a perfectly democratic tune — alike for 
lofty and for lowly. This, the young country 
fiddler, seated on a trunk among the wasps and 
cobwebs of the attic, first learns to scrape out 
upon his squeaking catgut. On this the grand 
maestro weaves his wild fantasia and calls it 
"Opus number 42." To this the raw recruit 
first learns to "mark the time" upon the muster 
field. To this the young collegian writes his 
Latin thesis : 

" Nunc rite gratulandum est ; 
Nee abstinendum joeo; 
Peractis binis saeculis 
Desipitur in loco ! " 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 29 

Its music cheers the fisherman on the lonely 
coast of Labrador; it rises mid the wildest 
acclamations when the stately 74 flings out her 
pennon of the stripes and star^ in the enchant- 
ing Bay of Naples. This is the pas de charge 
of our victorious troops advancing on the hostile 
legions ; the last strain that greets the soldier's 
ear before he wakens to the rapturous songs of 
the celestial armies. 

It has done something for the people, and 
the people love it. It is the blood of their 
political life, and you might as well attempt to 
rob them of Bunker Hill, or of the Stars and 
Stripes themselves, as of this dear old clinking, 
clattering, right about face, defiant battle march ! 



V. Songs at the Close of the Last Century, 
Egbert Paine's Adams and Liberty, etc. 



■y 



The year 1798 brought forth three celebrated 
national songs. Our country, then steering 
itself between the political Sylla and Charybdis 
of France and England, was expecting to be 



30 -4 MONOGRAM OF 

dashed upon the rocks on one side or the other. 
The caldron of party strife was seething hotly ; 
democrats and federalists were roused to fury 
by the contending factions in the hostile govern- 
ments of Europe, so that the calm voice of 
Washington and these immortal songs seem, 
alone, to have saved us from political destruc- 
tion. They came, according to a law to which 
I have referred, out of the bosom of the storm ; 
and they in turn most powerfully conspired to 
quell the storm. 

Two of them were written by sons of signers 
of the Declaration of Independence. 

Robert Treat Paine, born in Taunton, Massa- 
chusetts, Dec. 9, 1773, was christened by, to 
him, the unfortunate name of Thomas, which 
he subsequently had changed to Robert because, 
as he observed, in allusion to the author of the 
Age of Reason, " he had no Christian name." 

Vain, fanciful, indolent, he was petted and 
spoiled in college, and then married a beautiful 
play-actress, for which his father foolishly for- 
bade him access to his house. He subsequently 
gave himself up to poetry, wine and theatricals, 
any one of which is enough to ruin a man. 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 31 

He inherited, however, from his honored sire, 
the spirit of patriotism, and at the age of 
twenty-five produced his celebrated song Adams 
and Liberty, which rang like an angel's trumpet 
through the land, and for which he received 
seven hundred dollars cash, and immortality.^ 
It opens grandly thus : 

" Ye sons of Columbia who bravely have fought 

For those rights which unstained from your sires had de- 
scended, 
May you long taste the blessings your valor has bought, 
And your sons reap the soil which your fathers defended ; 
'Mid the reign of mild peace 
May your nation increase, 
With the glory of Rome and the wisdom of Greece ; 
And ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, 
While the earth bears a plant or the sea rolls its waves." 

The eighth stanza was written impromptu, 
under a double pressure, and is of course the 
best. Many a verse has been inspired by wine, 
but this was written for the want of it. 



1 He died Nov. 13th, 1811, and his works were published 
in one volume by Charles Prentiss in 1812. He is the 
author of Rise Cohhmhia, 1794, and other patriotic songs. 
Referring to him, one of his biographers observes : " he was 
an electric battery charged ; if you touched him, the sparky 
flew." 



32 ^ MONOGBAM OF 

Dining with, his friend, Major Benjamin Rus- 
sell, of the Gentinel, one day, Paine was reminded 
that his lyric was imperfect, inasmuch as the 
name of Washington was omitted; and his host 
declared he should not taste a drop of wine until 
he had produced another stanza. 

The bibacious poet sees the glasses sparkling 
on the board, and calling for a pen immediately 
writes as from the innermost shrine of his 
glowing heart : 

" Should the tempest of war overshadow our land, 

Its bolts would ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder, 
For unmoved at its portals would Washington stand, 
And repulse with his breast the assaults of the thunder ; 
His sword from the sleep 
Of its scabbard would leap, 
And conduct with its point, every flash to the deep ; 
And ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves. 
While the earth bears a plant or the sea rolls its waves." 



Joseph Hopkinson's Hail Columbia. 

The same year, 1798, when war with France 
appeared inevitable — indeed had actually be- 
gun — gave birth to another liberty hymn, con- 
ceived in the very loftiest style of patriotic 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 33 

devotion — enshrining, as it were, the spirit of 
freedom and the glory of the illustrious sage of 
Mount Vernon about to ascend to heaven, and 
passing them, over embalmed in music to the 
incoming century. 

The field music of the revolution consisted 
mainly of Yankee Doodle; On the Road to Boston; 
Rural Felicity; My Dog and Qun, and Washing- 
ton's March ;^ but on the occasion of Washing- 
ton's first attendance at the theatre in New 
York, 1789, a German by the name of Feyles 
composed a tune to take the place of Washing- 
ton's March, christening it with the name Presi- 
dent's March. 

It soon became a favorite, and on a certain 
Monday evening in the summer of 1798, an 
indifferent singer by the name of Fox, belonging 
to the Philadelphia theatre, was about to take 
his benefit. 

Saturday morning came; not a ticket had 
been sold and a "beggarly account of empty 
boxes" was before him, when a good thought 
struck his brain. 



^ Composed in Gr, by the Hon. Francis Hopkiuson. See 
Historical Magazine for January, 1859. 



34 -1 MONOGRAM OF 

Congress was in session; political strife ex- 
citing; the storm of war was lowering, and a 
patriotic song, especially if he could get one 
written to Feyles's President's March, would 
save him. 

He knew a clever young lawyer, once his 
schoolmate, and son of the witty author of the 
Battle of the Kegs. His name was Joseph Hop- 
kinson* — name famous then in law and lite- 
rature, but still more famous now. 

The poetic lawyer pities his friend Fox, bids 
him call again on Sunday afternoon, and then 

he gives him the prize that glides into 

the poor player's fingers, and through those 
fingers into this great nation — he gives him — 

" Hail Columbia, happy land, 
Hail ye heroes, heaven-born band, 
Who fought and bled in freedom's cause, 
And when the storm of war was gone 
Enjoyed the peace your valor won; 



1 Son of Francis and Mary (Borden) Hopkinson, and 
born in Philadelphia, Nov. 12, 1770 ; graduated at the 
University of Pennsylvania, and was counsel for Dr. Rush 
in his suit against the celebrated William Cobbett. Con- 
gressman from 1815 to 1819, and appointed judge in 1828. 
He was president of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, 
and died, highly respected, Jan. 15, 1842. 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 35 

Let independence be your boast ; 
Ever mindful wbat it cost; 
Ever grateful for the prize, 
Let its altar reacL. tbe skies. 
Firm, united let us be, 
Rallying round our liberty ; 
As a band of brothers joined, 
Peace and safety we shall find." 

And then : 

"Immortal patriots rise once more. 
Defend your rights, defend your shore." 

And still more grand it rolls along to the 
pealing climax : 

" Sound, sound the trump of fame ; 
Let Washington's great name 
Ring through the world with loud applause." 

Nine times the audience call for it, and then 
rising altogether join with rapturous tongues in 
the full chorus. 

It filled the theatre — it fired the national 
heart — it raised the dome of patriotism far 
above the minarets of faction, and bound us with 
the bands of faith and probity in political union. 

It is, you will observe, a purely patriotic 
hymn. It makes no reference to France or 



36 ^ MONOGRAM OF 

England, democrat or federalist. It therefore 
pleased alike each party. Every word is 
instinct with freedom. It is a clarion peal, 
each note of it, from the avant couriers of our 
liberty; and as it electrified the hearts of 
Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, McHenry, 
then, so its great glowing thoughts make our 
hearts leap exultingly to-day. 

Jefferson gave us the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; Hamilton gave us the Constitution ; 
Washington gave us his Farewell Address — 
was the benefaction less when Hopkinson gave 
us Hail Columbia ? '^ 



Sumner's Ode on Science. 

I am inclined to believe the citizens of Taun- 
ton are not remarkably felicitous in respect to 
the names of their children. We have seen it 



^ In the original arrangement of this celebrated song, 
which lies before me, it is styled, " The favorite new Federal 
Song adapted to the President's March : sung by Mr. Fox, 
written by J. Hopkinson, Esq." The music is in the key 
of C. For the author's own account of the composition, see 
Moore's Encyclopedia of llusic, article " Hail Columbia." 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 37 

in the singular mistake of ushering one of them 
into the world under the unchristian title of 
Thomas Paine, and a clerical friend of ours 
recently administered the holy rite of baptism 
in one of the churches of that thriving town to 
a little love pledge under the sweet name of 
Mary, when the father terrified flew up to him, 
in face of the assembly, saying : "We have one 
Mary in the family already — what a sad mis- 
take — can you not unbajptize her?" And many 
a year ago a father gave his little son the 
unmerciful prsenomen of Jazaniah to bear along 
with him through this gainsaying world; but 
Jazaniah Sumner came to be a noble hearted, 
unpretending, patriotic man; a deacon of the 
church, who loved his country more than his 
political party, and when in 1798 the excellent 
Mr. Simeon Daggett was preparing the young 
gentlemen and ladies for the fiftieth annual 
e:iamination of the Taunton Academy, the good 
deacon, Jazaniah Sumner, was inditing a song, 
both words and music, to be sung on the occa- 
sion. Though political in its bearing, he gave 
it the name of Ode on Science, and this, so far 

as I can learn, is the first good patriotic song 




38 ^ MONOGRAM OF 

whose music and whose words were both com- 
posed by an American. The author's letter^ 
to Mr. Daggett, with the autograph of the 
original music lies before me as I write. The 
words are strictly national and patriotic : 

I. 

'■ The morning sun shines from the east 
And spreads his glories to the west, 
All nations with his beams are blest 

Where'er his radiant light appears ; 
So Science spreads her lucid ray 
O'er lands that long in darkness lay : 
She visits fair Columbia 

And sets her sons among the stars." 

II. 
"Fair Freedom her attendant waits 
To bless the portals of her gates, 
To crown the young and rising states. 

With laurels of immortal day. 
The British yoke, the G-allic chain. 
Was urged upon our sons in vain ; 
All haughty tyrants we disdain, 

And shout — ' Long live America.' " 

The author strikes at France and England 
alike, exalting our own land in glory between 



1 Jazaniah Sumner's Letter to Mr. Simeon Daggett^ 
Preceptor of Taunton Academy. 

Sir : While I was anticipating the pleasing satisfaction 
of a respectable audience who will probably attend on the 
day of exhibition, I was anxious that we on our part might 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 39 

them, and when on a certain occasion the 
federalists in that part of Taunton, since called 
Raynham, inserted the word Jacobins instead of 
tyrants in the chorus and thundered out : 

" All haughty Jacobins we disdain, 
And shout ' Long live America.' " 

a terrific storm of indignation burst forth from 
the Jeffersonian wing of the house and the 
meeting broke up in confusion. Though the 
words of this song are not remarkably poetical, 
the music is as original and peculiar as Timothy 
Swan's old tune of Gliina. The chorus comes 
out in fine relief to the plaintiveness of the quar- 

add something to the novelty of the day. In searching our 
church music I could find nothing suitable which was the 
cause of my attempting this small piece of music, together 
with the lines. It will be a sufficient apology for me to say 
that I have no pretensions to a poetical genius, nor have I 
trod the flowery path of science, but hope my attempt may 
emulate some superior genius who may offer something more 
worthy your acceptance. 

Such as it is it is humbly dedicated to you, sir (together 
with my sincere wishes that you may long preside over the 
useful institution in this place, and have the satisfaction to 
see your labors crown'd with success), by your most obedient 

^^^^^^'^^' Jazaniah Sumner. 

Taunton, April 3, 1798. 

To Mr. Simeon Dao-gett. 



40 -4 MONOGRAM OF 

tette with the ring of a war trumpet. Had 
the tune commenced, as the Gods of the Greehs, 
upon a lower note, it would have been more 
popular still. The first step is unfortunately 
the longest one, and that too often prevents the 
people from taking any step at all ; but the tune 
is national, our first national patriotic tune ; it 
performed good service in its day, and hence in 
memory of the times gone by we love to sing it 
and to speak the name of Jazaniah Sumner still. 



VI. The Early Songs of this Present Century. 

Of the patriotic songs which appeared in the 
early part of this century and even to the war 
of 1812, none perhaps were more popular than 
Mrs. Susanna Rowson's spirited America, Com- 
merce and Freedom; and Jefferson and Liberty, 
written to an old Irish air in 1801. Our ladies 
used to sing at that period Thomas Campbell's 
Exiles of E7'in; Since then Fm Doomed, from the 
Spoiled Child; Tell me, habhling Echo, and 
Bidwell's Friendship ; our seamen, Blach Eyed 
Susan, and Charles Dibdin's beautiful Tom Bow- 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 41 

line; our young sentimentalists, Gen. John 
Burgoyne's Encompassed in an AtigeVs Frame, 
and Sterne's Maria; while our old men in their 
social interviews made the welkin ring with Sail 
Colunibia, Adams and Liberty, and Sumner's Ode 
on Science, bringing in as interludes, it might be, 
the Soldiers Return; the Bright Rosy Morning ; 
Life let us Glie7'isli ; Begone didl Care, and 
intermingling now and then the minor strains 
of the old Indian Death Song : ^ 

" The sun sets at niglit and the stars shua the day." 

Gilderoy ; Wife, Children and Friends ;^ Msijor 
Andre's Lament, and Oswald's sorrow-breathing 
Roslin Castle.^ 



1 The words of this once popular song, sometimes ascribed 
to Philip Freneau, were written by Mrs. John Hunter, a 
sister of Sir Everard Home. " The idea was suggested seve- 
ral years ago," says the author, "by hearing a gentleman who 
had resided many years ago in America among the tribe 
called the Cherokees, sing a wild air which he assured me 
it was customary for those people to chant with a barbarous 
jargon, implying contempt of their enemies in the moments 
of torture and death." See Duyckinck's Gyc. of Am. Lit.., 
vol. I, p. 341. 

2 By the Hon. William R. Spencer, 1770-1834.— (7yc. 
Eng. Lit., ii, 421. 

^ " Its no a Scots tune, but it passes for one. Oswald 



42 A MONOGRAM OF 

But the impressment of seamen, the embargo 
and Mr. Madison's Avar that followed, threw the 
country into another exigence, and by the law 
that the bruised flower yields the sweetest per- 
fume, another national lyric, the brightest of 
the constellation, sprang from it to breathe 
fresh inspiration into every loyal heart. The 
war had come down to its darkest hour, and 
while in commemoration of our naval victories 
inferior hands were striking out such clever 
songs as Our Flag is tliere, and while some in 
livelier mood were giving us the Jolly Enterprise 
and Boxer, and, to the tune oi JEkelines Bower, 

" I often have been told, 
That the British seamen bold, 
Could beat the tars of France neat and handy, 0." 

One solitary eye in fine frenzy rolling, caught 
a spark of true Promethean fire and conferred 
a royal benefaction on his native land. 



made it himsell, I reckon. He has cheated mony ane, but 
he canna cheat Wandering Willie. He then played your 
favorite air of RosUn Castle with a number of beautiful 
variations." — Red Gauntlet, p. 31. 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 43 



Francis Scott Key's Stae Spangled Banner. 

In the month of August, 1814, the country 
hung upon the verge of ruin. Our army led 
by Dearborn, Hull and Winder was diminishing 
under a succession of deplorable reverses. The 
democrats and federalists were burning with 
political rancor; our financial credit had run 
down to zero, and our currency was such that 
it required a dollar to buy a single yard of 
cotton cambric cloth. In the midst of this 
general gloom Lord George Cockburn enters 
the Chesapeake with a fleet of 20 sail, and 
makes a quick advance on Washington. 

At Bladensburg, Md., the British army, 
4,000 veterans, under Major Robert Ross, en- 
counters Gen. William H. Winder, who, fight- 
ing feebly, soon sets out on what is called the 
Bladensburg races, for the woods. 

Cockburn enters Washington — the capitol — 
ascends into the speaker's chair and puts the 
question to his soldiers : " Shall this harbor of 
Yankee democracy be burned ? " " Yes ! yes ! " 
cry out a thousand voices, and, in a little, flames 



44 -4 MONOGRAM OF 

are rising over all the city, and the capital is in 
ruins. 

Cockburn now turns his course on Baltimore, 
defended by 10,000 men and FortM'Henry. Ross 
lands his troops below the city and commences 
marching on it ; while the fleet, increased to forty 
sail, prepares for the bombardment of the fort. 

Meantime a little vessel guided by a brave 
young man, and bearing a white flag of truce, 
shoots out from underneath the guns of Fort 
M'Henry, and glides like a bird down the 
broad bay directly to the flag ship of the British 
squadron. 

That man is Francis Scott Key.^ He goes to 
intercede for the deliverance of his dear old 
friend Dr. Beanes, who had been taken prisoner 
at the races. 

Cockburn detains him. 

The squadron, forming a vast semicircle, 
moves, like a vulture with its talons spread, 



1 Francis Scott Key, son of John E-oss Key, an officer in 
tlie revolutionary army, was born Aug. 1, 1779, and died 
Jan. 11, 1843, leaving a numerous family. One of his sons 
was shot in a duel by John Sherburne of Portsmouth, N. H., 
and another, Philip Barton Key, was killed at Washington 
by Daniel E. Sickles on Sunday, Feb. 27, 1859. 



OTIB NATIONAL SONG. 45 

as if to grasp and crush at one fell swoop the 
silent fort. 

Key's boat is kept astern of the flag ship of 
the admiral, himself a prisoner in it, and from 
this point he hears above the booming of the 
floods the steady cannonading on the shore. 

From this point he sees the lingering sun- 
beams of the 13th of September fade away 
beneath the forests on the west; he sees the 
heavy clouds come rolling over the dark waters of 
the bay, and a dim twinkling light from the low 
promontory of the Fort M'Henry, now the slen- 
der pivot on which our national destiny is 
turning. 

From that frail skiff, moored to the tall 
admiral he marks the mighty preparations for 
the onset — the clearing of the decks, the 
ranging of the guns, the furling of the canvas. 

And now — ah, look, the long and curved 
line of brazen lips are spouting forth the fiery 
streams of death, directed to one common cen- 
tre — Fort M'Henry. 

Ah, look ! The globes of fire cast lurid 
gleams upon the inky clouds above, the waves 
are flashing in the flames below. 



46 , ^ MONOGRAM OF 

Ah look ! A torrent hissing from the fort 
comes crashing back into the ships ; and now 
sheets of flame and bursting shells, and red hot 
shot, and bugle notes and falling masts, and 
streams of gore and battle agony — the conster- 
nation and the havoc and the din of direful 
war. You can see it, tell it I cannot. 

All through the thundering crash of that 
long, horrid night,^ the prisoner stands in his 
light skiff, intently gazing on the rolling floods 
of fire — heaven, earth, and sea in one wild 
blaze; a leaf — himself and country — shaken 
by the tempest to the very verge of doom. 



' Sixteen hundred bombs by old Cockburn's command, 
At our fort were discharged by his famed sons of plunder, 

While unmoved stood brave Armistead's well chosen band. 
Sending back their full change in red hot Yankee thunder. 

Battle of North Point. 

The bombardment began at daylight on the 13th inst., 
and continued till the. morning of the 14th, about twenty- 
five hours. The night was dark and stormy, with thunder 
and lightning. Four hundred shells exploded within the 
fort, and yet only four of our men were killed. See The 
Late War by William James, vol. ii, p. 307 ; also Notices 
of the War of 1812, by John Armstrong, vol. it, p. 136. 
In his HiMory of Maryland^ John M'Sherry says, vol. ll, p. 
343, the bombardment began on the evening of the 13th of 
September, which is evidently a mistake. 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 47 

But lo ! the fire balls cease to flame across 
the bay ; the roar of the terrific conflict is sub- 
siding, and now all is dark and still again. 

Has the fort M'Henry struck her flag ? 

Oh, what an hour of agony ! 

With straining eyes Key waits and watches 
for the first gray beam of breaking day — even 
as the saint for the first gleams of immortality. 

But now the clouds roll by, the dawn is 
trembling on the headlands, the mist is clearing, 
and there, just rising dimly from the ramparts 
through the gray vail of the morning Key dis- 
cerns — oh, thrilling as the vision of an angel 
from the gates of Eden — Key discerns the 
dear old stripes and stars still waving ! 

Snatching an old letter from his pocket, he 
lays it on a barrel-head, and while the flag is in 
his eye, the fiery tides of liberty coursing 
through 'his soul, he writes : 

I. 

" 0! say can you see by the dawn's early light, 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming; 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming; 
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Grave proof through the night that our flag was still there. 
say ! does the star-spangled banner still wave, 
O'er the laud of the free and the home of the brave ! " 



48 A MONOGRAM OF 

II. 

" On the shore dimly seen through the mist of the deep, 
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep. 

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ? 
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
In full glory reflected, now it shines on the stream ; 
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O ! long may it wave, 
O'er the laud of the free and the home of the brave." 

III. 
" thus be it ever when freemen shall stand. 

Between their loved homes and war's desolation ; 
Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land. 

Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. 
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. 
And this be our motto — ' In Grod is our trust.' 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave. 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." ^ 

Cockburn soon left the bay; God save the 
king — the country ! 

The music of the Star Spangled Banner was 
composed by Dr. Samuel Arnold/ Oxford, Eng- 
land, for the old hunting song Anacreon in 
Heaven. 



1 These words were originally published in the Baltimore 
Patriot on the 20th of September, 1814, under the title cf 
The Defence of Fort McHenry. 

2 Dr. Samuel Arnold [1739-1802], author of The Maid 
of the Mill, and the oratorios of The Prodigal Son, 
AUmelech, The Curse of Saul, and The Resurrection; 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 49 

It is, I dare maintain in opposition to the 
critics, original, elevated, soul-inspiring and 
most admirably suited for a national anthem. 

It commences on a key so low that all may 
join in it. 

It has unity of idea. The melodic parts 
most naturally succeed each other, and if I 
may so speak, are logically conjoined and bound 
together. It consists of solo, duett and chorus, 
and thus in unity presents variety. It is bold, 
warlike, and majestic ; stirring the profoundest 
emotions of the soul, and echoing through its 
deepest chambers something of the prospective 
grandeur of a mighty nation tramping towards 
the loftiest heights of intellectual dominion.^ 



was organist and composer to his majesty's chapel at St. 
James's, and published a splendid edition of the works of 
the immortal Greorge F. Handel in 1786. He also published 
four volumes of cathedral music. 

1 The effect of this national air as sung by ten thousand 
voices at the Peace Festival in Boston, June 15, 1869, with 
full orchestra, drum corps, chiming of bells, and artillery 
accompaniments was truly grand. At the conclusion of the 
last stanza the vast audience sprang up and filled with deaf- 
ening cheers the Coliseum. 



50 ^ MONOGRAM OF 



YII. OuE Songs during the Tranquillity 
WHICH Mr. Madison's War secured. 

Under the cerulean skies which followed the 
hard contest, there frequently appeared a beau- 
tiful American song to gladden our hearts and 
homes, and elevate the tone of social life. As 
the country advanced in wealth and education, 
the people had more leisure and more taste for 
cultivating and enjoying music. The piano- 
forte was gradually introduced; which by its 
accompaniments sustained the voice and lent 
expression to the song. Music books were 
multiplied, the children in our schools were 
taught, and ever should be taught, to sing. 

Among the popular songs of this period which 
may be said to have sunk deeply into the affec- 
tions of the people, none is more widely known 
than Home, Sweet Home, by John Howard Payne,-^ 



1 Born in New York, June 9, 1792, and died in Tunis, 
where he was consul, in 1852. As an actor and author of 
several dramas he met with considerable success; but his 
fame will rest upon the inimitable song of Sweet Home, 
which he wrote in Loudon for his Claris or the Maid of 
Milan, in 1823. In giving a history of his wanderings and 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. ' 51 

who through reverse of fortune never came to 
taste himself the joys of that dear spot of which 
he sang so sweetly. It was estimated in 1832 
that more than one hundred thousand copies of 
this favorite song had been sold by the original 
publisher. The music was composed by Sir 



his trials, lie once said to a friend : " How often I have been 
in the heart of Paris, Berlin, and London, -or some other 
city, and heard persons singing or hand-organs playing 
Siveet Home^ without having a shilling to buy myself the 
next meal, or a place to lay my head. The world has 
literally sung my song till every heart is familiar with its 
melody. Yet I have been a wanderer from my boy- 
hood. My country has turned me ruthlessly from office, 
and in my old age I have to submit to humiliation for my 
bread." 

Mr. Payne wrote two additional verses to his immortal 
song for an American lady in London in 1833 or '4. — Home 
Journal. 

To us, in despite of the absence of years, 
How sweet the remembrance of home still appears. 
From allurements abroad, which but flatter the eye, 
The unsatisfied heart turns, and says, with a sigh, 
Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 

There's no place like home ! 

There's no place like home ! 

Your exile is blest with all fate can bestow, 
But mine has been checkered with many a woe ! 
Yet though diiferent our fortunes, our thoughts are the same, 
And both, as we think of Columbia, exclaim. 
Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 

There's no place like home ! 

There's no place like home ! 



52 A MONOGRAM OF 

Henry R. Bishop [1782-1856], for the opera 
of Glari, which was brought out in 1823. 

The Old Oaken Bucket, by Samuel Wood- 
worth j^ Woodman Spare that Tree, and Near 
the Lake there Drooped a Willow, by George P. 
Morris ; Ood Bl^s our Native Land, translated 
from the German by John S. Dwight, the 
accomplished editor of the Journal of Music ; 
the Old Arm Chair, by Eliza Cook ; the Land- 
ing of the Pilgrims, by George Lunt, for which 
Mr. T. B. White wrote the music ; A Life on the 
Ocean Wave, by Epes Sargent, and 

" Rocked in tlie cradle of the deep 
I lay me down in peace to sleep," 

are all beautiful and well known national lyrics, 
which have magically touched the chords of 



1 Born in Scituate, Mass., Jan. 13, 1785, and died Dec. 9, 
1842. He wrote also The Hunters of Kentucky, SMdL otlier 
songs, for whicli see his Melodies^ published in New York, 
1831. The Old Oahen Bucket "was written in the spring 
or summer of 1817. The family were living at the time in 
Duane street. The poet came home to dinner one very 
warm day, having walked from his office, somewhere near 
the foot of Wall street. Being much heated with the 
exercise, he poured himself out a glass of water — New York 
pump water — and drank it at a draught, exclaiming, as he 
replaced the tumbler on the table, ' that is very refreshing, 
but how much more refreshing would it be to take a good 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 53 

feeling, and which the people will not willingly 
let die. The last mentioned song is from the 
fertile pen of Mrs. Emma Willard/ one of the 
most celebrated female educators in America, 
whose fair and honored name among its gifted 
ones this city ^ numbers. It was written on the 
deep, whose mysterious spirit it so beautifully 
breathes, during the author's passage home from 
Europe in 1832. The Duke de Choiseul who 



long draught, this warm day, from the old oaken bucket I 
left hanging in my father's well, at home ! ' Hearing this, 
the poet's wife, who was always a suggestive body, said, 
' Selim, why wouldn't that be a pretty subject for a poem ? ' 
The poet took the hint, and under the inspiration of the 
moment, sat down and poured out from his very soul those 
beautiful lines which have immortalized the name of Wood- 
worth." — Home Journal. 

1 This estimable lady is the daughter of Samuel Hart, and 
was born in New Berlin, Conn., in February, 1787. She 
commenced the Troy Seminary for Young Ladies in 1821, 
and is the author of several valuable educational works. 
She published a volume of poems in 1830. Lafayette visited 
her when last in America, and made her a present of a 
valuable diamond ring. She still resides in Troy, N. Y. 
As Dr. Delany said of Mrs. Gibber on her rendering of 
Handel's He ivas despised and rejected of Men — so may we 
not almost say of her who wrote : 

Rocked in the cradle of the deep, 

" Woman, for this, be all thy sins forgiven ! " 

2 Troy, N. Y. 



5J: A MONOGRAM OF 

was on board the same vessel, hearing Mrs. 
Willard repeat the first two lines of the lyric, 
encouraged her to complete it, and then himself 
composed the music for it. The air, however, 
to which it is now sung was written by Mr. 
J. P. Knight. When hearing some sweet voice 
murmuring this ocean-song at eventide, whis- 
pering as it does of the immensity of the sea, 
of the might of Him who holds it in his hand, 

" Grod of stillness and of motion, 
Of tlie rainbow and the ocean ; " 

the illustrious dawn of the grand coming destiny 
seems near ; the soul is filled with the sublimest 
aspirations, and we feel that such a song we 
would be glad to have breathed over us while 
the last lingering ray of life is breaking into 
the immortal splendor. 



YIII. Our Songs in the late War. 

In the marshaling to arms for the suppression 
of the late rebellion, our music came in, as you 
may well suppose, to exert a most potent influ- 
ence. To the stirring strains of Yankee Doodle; 



Omi NATIONAL SONG. 55 

Columbia tlie Gem of the Ocean, by David T. 
Shaw, and set to the English tune of The Red, 
White and Blue; Star Spangled Banner ; Hail 
Columbia; and Our Country 'tis of Thee,^ by 
Dr. S. F. Smith, the national heart thrilled 
anew, and as these old melodies arose from 
well trained bands, the braves came forth from 
peaceful homes to do battle in the sacred cause 
of liberty. Eloquence, money, did their part — 
but music more. 

The mustering drum beat out the stories of 
the olden times, and stirred the hearts of men 
to rally round the flag; and by its enlivening 
roll the ranks were filled. 

New songs came in to swell the tide of feeling 
and to throw fresh glory over the tented field. 



- ' One of the most deservedly popular of our sacred na- 
tional hymns, sung to the tune of God save the King, here 
called America. In a letter to me, dated Newton Centre, 
Mass., June 11, 1861, the accomplished and estimable author 
says : " The song was written at Andover during my student 
life there, I think in the winter of 1831-2. It was first 
used publicly at a Sunday School celebration of July 4th, in 
Park street church, Boston. I had in my possession a 
quantity of German song books from which I was selecting 
such music as pleased me, and finding God save tlie King, 
I proceeded to give it the ring of American republican 
patriotism." 



56 ^ MONOGRAM OF 

John Brown's Body lies mouldering in the grave 
is perhaps the most remarkable. From its quaint 
expressions, mingling the mundane with the 
spiritual; from the point in the highly poetical 
line, "His soul's marching on" — fighting the 
battles of his country still ; from the simplicity 
of the martial air, said to be by Philip Simonds, 
which every one could sing so easily, it caught 
the public ear at once ; became a rallying song 
of power, and called men more mightily than 
the tongue of eloquence to the war. 

You heard its " Hallelujah chorus " rise from 
the lips of the mustering squadrons, as the song 
of the cross in the times of the old crusaders. 

Jefferson and Liberty, also under the name of 
Raw Recruits, or Old Glory, had a resurrection 
in the commencement of the war, and sent its 
electrifying inspirations through the hearts of 
millions. 

In a vast assembly for obtaining men, I 
heard for an hour, or more, the immortal 
Everett speak in tones of most commanding 
eloquence; and as he closed his soul-entrancing 
periods — it was the dying music of the swan — 
the bands struck up Old Glory, bringing the 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 57 

audience in an instant to their feet, firing 
every heart with such enthusiasm as moved 
the immortal bands at Leuctra and at Ma- 
rathon ; calling forth deafening thunders of 
acclamation, and phalanx after phalanx of men 
for war. 

As the great drama opened and untried 
soldiers moved on toward the field of deadly 
conflict, music came in to inspire them for the 
bold emprise, and nerve them for the terrific 
onset. 

On Friday evening, July 19, 1861, before the 
disastrous battle of Bull Run, I was lying with 
the Michigan 4th Regiment in front of the 
enemy at Fairfax Court House. The stillness 
of the nightfall was broken only by the report 
of an occasional rifle from the surrounding 
forest. The lights of the camp were gradually 
extinguished and the weary soldiers were about 
to spread themselves upon the broad and ver- 
dant campus of the Court House for repose. The 
colonel (Woodberry) said : " Come, boys, let's 
have a song ! " The singers came around him ; 
stretched themselves along the greensward, and 
the oak branches bending over them, in front 



58 ^ MONOOBAM OF 

of that old building where the voice of Patrick 
Henry had been heard in golden tones for 
liberty, broke forth into the glorious strains of 
Hail Columbia, Star Spangled Banner, and Old 
Hundred, making the very welkin ring with 
their manly voices, rising higher, and stronger, 
and mightier — the whole regiment now joining 
in — and pouring forth such a tide of music as 
old ocean rolls along in praise to its eternal Ruler. 

I had heard something of the great masters — 
the glorious choruses of Bach, of Handel, 
Haydn, Mendelssohn — I had admired them; 
but not till then did I realize the sublime power 
of music, or so thank God for its heart-cheering 
strains. I then felt that the men would fight 
till glory came, and I was not mistaken. 

These great songs sung, the weary men, 
though in the front of death, sank into slumbers 
so profound, that the rain which soon came 
pattering down through the foliage of the oak 
trees (I remember the first drop that struck 
my cheek) did not awaken them. 

As the tide of war rolled on, music came in 
as some sweet heavenly visitant, to cheer and 
refresh the heart of the imperiled troops. 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 59 

It is not customary, as of old, for bands to 
play in the midst of battle. The music then is 
the rattling volley of musketry — the booming 
of the rifle cannon and the whizzing of the shot 
and shell ; — the bands are detailed to bear away 
the dead and wounded ; but in some instances, 
when the very turning point of the day has 
come, as at Williamsburg — in the terrific charge 
at Shiloh, and in the grand advance at Gettys- 
burg, which turned the tide of this whole na- 
tion's destiny. Hail Columbia and Yankee Doodle 
quickened the step of the serried columns, 
hastening the eventful issue.^ 

It is hard, it is tearing, smashing work to fight 
a battle ; — to say nothing of the intense agony, 
the wild phrenzy of the soul; it knx)cks 
the beauty out of the whole frame ; it shakes, 
unhinges, doubles up the whole organization. 
To charge across dead men, close up and grap- 
ple in the mortal strife, is a tremendous draft 
on human energy. To meet the crashing 



' " It was near noon, when the Zouaves, in their crimson 
garments, led by Colonel Duryea, charged the batteries 
[at Bethel] after singing The Star Spangled Banner in 
chorus." — Atlantic 3Iontlily^ Sept., 1862, pp. 346. 



60 ^ MONOGRAM OF 

shot and shell; to fight it out with such invin- 
cible pluck as our men showed at Fredericks- 
burg, Antietam, in the WildernesSj at Coal 
Harbor^ Petersburg, consumes the bone and 
marrow of the whole constitution ; but when 
the hurricane is over, music comes in refresh- 
ingly and most benign and comforting are its 
sweet soothing tones. The spirit of the war- 
worn soldier is at once revived by it; the 
wounded men forget their pains beneath its 
magic sway, the dead appear to sleep more 
sweetly as the notes of Hail Columbia roll out 
over them/ 

On the bloody battle field of Shiloh, when the 
fray was over, lay a captain, struck down mor- 
tally by a minie ball. In his agony he strove 
to reach a bloody pool of water to allay his 
burning thirst. He had not strength for it. 
The stars of night came out. He looked up to 
the shining vault and thought of God. He 
broke into a song. 



1 When our regimental bands played Hail Columbia, the 
Star Spangled Banner, and other national airs after the 
battle of Mill Spring, tears started to the eyes of many of 
the rebel prisoners at the well remembered strains. 



OUB NATIONAL SONG. 61 

" When I can read my title clear, 
To mansions in the skies," 

another dying soldier heard him and repeated 
it — another joined the chorus, then another — 
then another, until from every part of that en- 
sanguined field, the music of the mansions rose 
from lips of dying men to soothe the mortal 
agony and antedate the empyrean harmonies/ 

Our bands used to play in the army the beau- 
tiful airs of Mozart's Don Giovanni, or of Lucretia 
Borgia, and/Z Traoatore, with marches and quick- 
steps from Chopin ; from Flotow's Martha and 
from Gonoud's Faust ; interblended, perhaps, 
with the universal favorites of the soldier; 
Annie Laurie ; Her hrigJit Eyes haunt me still ; 
Rosa Lee ; Lilly Dale ; Marching along ; Sweet 
Home; and The Girl Lief t behind me. 

The rebel bands which I have heard played 
nearly the same tunes, always substituting, 
however, the merry strains of Dixie for Yanhee 
Doodle, and the beautiful air. My Maryland 
or the Marseillaise for the Star Spangled Banner. 

Mighty as music is to stir the heart at home, it 
has a far more potent spell upon the tented field. 



1 Hackett's Memor^ials of the Wa7\ 
9 



62 ^ MONOGBAM OF 

You rise, for instance, on some beautiful, clear, 
morning; walk along the lines of our brave 
army lying at rest in front of Petersburg ; you 
hear the various bugle calls of the artillery 
brigades, echoing sweetly through the forest; 
the fife and drum of the infantry in the early 
drill ; you catch faint sounds of Dixie from the 
intrenchments of the enemy; you hear some 
squad of soldiers singing rapturously " Well all 
feel gay lolien Jolmny comes marching home ; " 
or Rally round the flag, hoys ; you hear another 
section singing the chorus of When this cruel 
loar is over ; We are tenting to-night on the old 
camp ground ; or you listen of a sabbath morn- 
ing in the deep wilderness, to men's voices 
uniting in some well known sabbath school 
melody, as, / have a father in the promised land ; 
or to some poor wounded soldier in the hospital, 
murmuring in low tones, 

" 0, sing to me of heaven when I am called to die, 
Sing songs of heavenly ecstacy to waft my soul on high ;" 

or hold your ear to catch the slow and distant 
dirge, Peace, troubled sotd, ivhose plaintive moan, 
played with mufiied drums when some brave 



OUR NATIONAL 80NG. 63 

warrior is consigned by tearful comrades to his 
silent home, and you then begin to comprehend 
the power of music ; the worth of music and its 
incalculable service in softening the horrors of 
war; you feel some chords thrilling in your breast 
that nothing on earth had ever touched before. 
But there were sorrows at home as well as at 
the seat of war. " Partings such as crush the 
blood from out young hearts," — wives and 
mothers weeping for the loved and stricken ones. 
Yet the -stealing tear was often assuaged ; the 
bitter grief consoled by the inspiring notes of 
national song. We are marching to the music of 
the Union; Who will care for mother ; and 
other beautiful songs which the war called forth 
broke up the sad monotony of many a suffer- 
ing heart, and beguiled it of the loneliness of 
its sorrow and bereavement. 



IX. The Distinctive Character and Future 
Mission of Our National Song. 

In the formation of this union, in the re- 
establishment of this union, our music did effec- 
tive service, but especially in the last tremendous 



64 ^ MONOGRAM OF 

ordeal was its ministry most helping. It roused 
the hearts of the people to undertake great 
things for the salvation of the country ; it called 
the soldiers to the camping ground ; it inspired 
them on the weary march ; it nerved them for 
the battle shock ; it consoled them in their suf- 
ferings ; it rose clear and sweet above the ser- 
ried hosts of our invincible army on the last 
great day of victory; it welcomed the noble 
warriors home ; it now rings, as the flag flies, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific shore, from 
Maine to Mexico. Is its mighty mission over ? 

Be pleased to look at it. The leading cha- 
racteristic of our country's song is determined 
energy and exulting hope. 

The Russian national hymn excites in us the 
idea of mournful grandeur in accordance with 
the gigantic power of that vast hyperborean 
region ; the Marseillaise, La Parisienne, Mourir 
pour la patrie^ and Queen Hortensia's Partant 
pour la Syrie of France, awaken tender and 
affectionate memories of the past; England's 
national anthem, simple,^ unaffected, passionless, 



' Music by F. Alphonse Varney. 

- God save the King appeared originally in the Gentle- 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 65 

seems to be in perfect keeping with the calm 
and placid dignity of that people ; the Scottish 
patriotic airs, as the Land of the leal, jScots wJia 
Jiae wi Wallace hied, etc., wanting the 7th or 
leading note and abounding in minor chords 
and cadences, breathe forth the spirit of an 
Alpine region full of gloomy caverns which has 
lost its king ; but the national songs of America, 
ringing from the buoyant and elastic spirit of a 
people in pursuit of a great destiny, speak out in 
every note, in every line, and enkindle in every 



man's Magazine, Oct., 1745, on tlie occasion of the landing 
of the pretender. Dr. Thomas A. Arne, author of Arta- 
xerxes, arranged it in parts. The air has been ascribed to 
Handel ; to Henry Carey who composed the celebrated song 
of Sally in our Alley, and to others. Dr. Burney maintains 
that it was composed for the chapel of James II. The mar- 
quise de Crequy in her memoirs published in 1844, says the 
music was composed by the celebrated duke of Sully (1560- 
1641), and was sung when Louis XIV entered the chapel 
of St. Cyr, to the following words written by Madame de 
Brinon : 

" G-rand Dieu, sauvez le Roi ! 
Grand Dieu, venez le Roi ! 

Vive le Roi ! 
Qui toujours glorieux 
• Louis victorieux 
Voyez vos enemis 
Toujours soumis." 

The air is sung in Germany and there called Bundes Lied. 



66 -A MONOGRAM OF 

heart the blessed sentiment of hope. Hardly 
a single minor strain is found in them. Even 

" Tramp, tramp, tramp, tlie boys are marcliing, 
Cheer up comrades tliey will come,"^ 

the song of the imprisoned soldier is beaming 
in every line with the celestial radiance of hope. 
Our songs look away to the brilliant future, 
glowing all over as the rainbow with the pro- 
phetic inspiration of hope ; hope in human 
progress, hope in the sweet ministrations of 
humanity ; hope in the light of woman's love 
and beauty ; hope in the power of free institu.- 
tions to sustain themselves; hope in the ulti- 
mate triumph of the right; hope in the rising 
grandeur of American liberty ; hope in the God 
of liberty. 

Now by the valor of our men ; by the wisdom 
of our chieftain ; by the ministration of woman ; 
by the enlivening power of music; by the inex- 
pressible goodness of God, we are saved as a 
nation ; four millions of bondmen have been set 
free ; labor has been vindicated ; and the name 
of Yankee rendered everlastingly honorable. 



1 Words and music by Greorge F. Root. 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 61 

The walls opposing our success have been 
demolished ; a land of promise, where mines of 
gold lie packed in between the ribs of the 
mountains ; where rivers of oil flow out of the 
valleys ; a land locked together by the most 
wonderful net-work of railways and telegraphs ; 
a land broad, fertile, rich, varied, beautiful above 
all other lands is our inheritance. The golden 
gates are thrown wide open, and voices call us 
onward to possess it. 

Has national music any part to play ? Yes, 
the grand old songs must still roll on; new 
songs must be composed ; but they must be 
glowing bright with hope, to stir the blood of 
the faint-hearted; to cheer up those that fall 
and falter by the way ; to draw the eye to the 
dear old flag ; to repeat the story of the men of 
1776 ; to rehearse the glory of the braves who 
placed the flag upon the domes of Richmond ; 
to proclaim the illustrious day of freedom ; to 
make the tyrant tremble ; to consolidate us 
into one vast free people; harmonious, high- 
minded, friendly, hopeful, grateful and aspiring. 
New times demand new music ; let it come in 
form above the negro melodies from the inspira- 



68 ^ MONOGRAM OF 

tion of our own warm hearts. Our grand 
national hymns we write ; our national airs we 
borrow ; and we take the best ; but the genius 
of our country now begins to shine brightly forth 
in music, even as in her sister arts ; let us then 
have fresh strains for fresh developments, for 
liberty is maintained but by unslumbering vigi- 
lance. Strike then from the lyre of freedom 
louder, loftier strains, but let the old peal on, for 
there is an avenging note in that rollicksome 
tune of Yanhee Doodle ; there is solid shot and 
shell, as well as hope, in Hail Columbia; there 
is the invincible pluck of Young America in 
the Star Spangled Banner, and soldiers march- 
ing to these hymns of liberty, lay wide and 
clear the track in front of them, unclasping 
every bond as they move proudly on to fling 
the starry flag of freedom, flaming over the 
beloved land. 

When the Union flag had come to float once 
more above the domes of Richmond, and but a 
few nights previous to the assassination of the 
illustrious patriot, Abraham Lincoln, he was 
called on by the surging crowd around the 
White House for a speech. 



OUR NATIONAL SONG. 69 

Rising in the balcony and bowing to the 
sea of heads in front, he spoke to this effect : 

"Gentlemen, I cannot make a speech to-night. 
I rather feel like hearing music. I want to 
hear my favorite old tune, Dixie. I always did 
love Dixie j and the attorney-general says that 
we may have it ; for Dixie, gentlemen, is now 
our own by right of conquest." 

The bands then struck up rapturously the 
stirring notes of Z^ix^e, Yankee Doodle, My. Mary- 
land, and the /Star Spangled Banner, amid the 
acclamations of the people ; — and so comming- 
ling may these strains forever peal in unison, 
and thus serve to bind this vast birthland of 
the free into one perfect and harmonious con- 
federation, which under the hero of the nine- 
teenth century and his successors shall ascend 
to unimagined heights of political, moral, intel- 
lectual grandeur, and move this whole world 
into order by the light of its wisdom, the smile 
of its beauty, and the song of its love. 

FINIS. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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